Borderlands: Ascension
by stewart92
Summary: Angels will fall and death claims them all. But thankfully she was a Siren, not an Angel. Angel-centric AU.
1. Chapter 1

Borderlands 2: Ascension

_If a bird had been in a cage for most its life, could it fly? _

Embracing death was easy. If one had nothing left, no loved ones, no friends and most important, no hope, then death isn't such a bad fate. It was nice irony, her first act of freedom was to end it.

Angel's vision was blurry. The screaming of the man who called himself father was fading. The solemn face of Roland and the slight tremble of Lilith's lip was surprising. Would they... cry for her? After everything she did to them. The death, the misery, she had caused them.

It was unforgivable but here they were. No smiling at her passing, but frowning. The new vault hunters, there were a few of them. Why did Jack need so many of them? It was going to shoot him in the ass now that she thought about it. Catching glimpses of Axton, uncharacteristically stoic. Zer0 was stoic as ever. Salvador, the smaller man was shifting uncomfortably, he looked pinched. Gaige, the robot mistress was openly crying, wiping her eyes, her metal arm clenched. Krieg shaking his head, muttering fast.

Maya was shaking, the poor girl. Angel knew she had come to Pandora to learn about her powers and the Sirens, this couldn't be easy.

Maya shouldn't be here. Thinking in panic, Angel's mind tried to jolt words out of her month, even as her body slumped forward. Everything was going numbly dark. But she had to warn them, her sisters in name. Maya and Lilith were in terrible danger. Jack had a direct way station transporter here. He could snatch either one of them and make them take her place. No, please no.

Angel's fading sight was replaced by memories of this very room, never changing, never bright, never warm and never home. The feeling of having the life sucked out of you every second. Unable to end it all. A prisoner in mind, body but not soul. It was hell Angel had yet to find an equal to.

Jack would take Lilith. Maya was good but Lilith was the senior Siren and had been fighting far longer then Maya plus Lilith's recent dips into using Eridium as a power boost made her more receptive to the charging process. Jack was insane. But insane did not mean he was idiotic. Mostly. In the end it didn't matter who he took. Jack... John was going to take her death badly. It was sad how much he thought was love was just misguided duty and obsession.

The vault hunters of old and new gathered around Angel. Soft gasps of air made it past her lips. It was too late. She couldn't feel anything. Angel knew deaths embrace was catching her. One last glimpse into the faces she tried to guide to this very moment and she felt happy. She wasn't going to die alone. How selfish of her.

Then Angel, daughter of John, youngest Siren to be known, a hybrid of computer AI and scared girl closed her eyes and died.

Death was bumpy. Angel was hurtling sideways, downwards, forwards at intense speeds. Colours that she had never seen before flew past her. There was no air here but her hair was shot backwards as there was air resistance here regardless. Angel had never moved more than 50 feet in her life. Taking over computers and echo communicators aside, she never actually left her chamber to do that. It was more like closing her eyes and "seeing" the machines.

This was motion, pure and simple, she was going to vomit soon, wonderful. Suddenly the journey stopped, the tunnel exploded into light. The she had legs, a body, arms and lips, air rushed around her, light burned her eyes. Angel took a gasp of air, she was floating then suddenly she was not. Not prepared Angel dropped from her suspended hovering and landed on her ass hard. A sharp ache settled in her backside. Angel groaned.

"Dam- I mean darn." She said under her breath. Her hands braced her off the ground, hard packed dirt shifted under her fingers. Dirt. Angel slowly opened her tightly shut eyes. The sun was glaring at her with no mercy, the heat of its touch spread across her face. She was outside. The barren land and its ragged hills, the bare branches of bushes swayed in the hot gushes of wind. Angel mouth was open. She leaned forward and sat on her knees ignoring the pain coming from the awkward position.

It was beautiful. Fresh air brushed past her. She took large amount of it into her lungs. She started to cough as the dusty air scratched her throat. She choked but started to laugh. Angel had never been outside, as far as she remembered. That room was all she had known, early blurry images of a home before the room were there but they were so long ago, unimportant now. Security cameras and satellite images could not compare to tasting freedom. Her laughter choked and her hiccuping laugh turned into loud sobs. She was free. Her life was hers. Angel looked at the sky, it was so blue it hurt her eyes but she stared anyway.

A voice behind her chirped up.

"**Thank you for using Hyperion's New-U station. A whole new you, for just a small pric-c-c-ee. Pleas... come agi... so-" **The machine spluttered and went quiet. Angel knew what the machine was without being told. It had two wing protrusions, a single antenna and a single round eye piece sat in the centre. It golden yellow colour was old and rusted to a dark brown.

The Hyperion company made money in several ways. Weapons development, urban development, scientific experiment and the new U-station. It was a marvel wonder that prevented early death by transferring memories and physical data via a chip in a persons brain. When a person died the chip sent a huge amount of data in violent out pour of energy it melted the body as it did it. The new U-station would receive the information and digitally reconstruct a persons body, clothes and possessions.

It was major debate in every government and education building in the universe if they were morally right or wrong. That the person coming out the machine wasn't the actual person that died. But the counter argument asked what made a person if not the memories or experiences? The other reason why not everyone used them was because it was one of most expensive services the Hyperion company offered. It took a pretty penny to get access. Jac- John actually developed the machine based of her own Siren powers. It scared Angel that her powers could be used to cheat death for money.

It was another irony in her mind that John had saved her inadvertently. But why was he swooping down to claim her? He had complete control over the system, turning ones access to the machine off and letting them die permanently. Such as the situation was with Roland and the others. They were given free access when John was using them to open the vault. He turned off their rights in a hope they would die thinking the new U-station would help them but the vault hunters found out and went in to hiding but it was for naught when they lived and set up the resistance. Still he could monitor all rebirths and uses of the machine.

Why did the new U-station look so destroyed? Questions she couldn't answer. She felt overwhelmed. How can she be alive? Did John give her a chip? Angel never considered that he might try to prevent her death. Suddenly she reached over her shoulders and scrambled her fingers over her back.

Holes where the Eridium injectors pulsed into her were gone. That couldn't be. Angel needed Eridium to live. Her body shut down without the stuff coursing through her veins. John had been pumping the purple stuff into her since it emerged from the ground 5 years ago after the original vault had been opened by Roland, Lilith, Brick and Mordecai. The purple energy had empowered her to such an extent she could actually start to affect the physical word. Open doors connected to her network. Create simple machinery from energy alone. But it came at a crippling cost as she needed the stuff more than blood. Not that John cared. She was never coming off the Eridium so Angel never needed to worry about it. He was a warped man in many ways. Angel blamed her great grandmother.

Angel was so absorbed by the world, the machine, her existence in general that she didn't notice the man come up to her until his revolver clicked into place at her temple.

"Little ladies popping out of that machine can't be anything good. So I should shoot you now and go back to bed." The man had a rasp to his voice, like it was used a little too often, a little too much. Angel turned and crawled backwards, hitting the new U-station. Her hands came up in a sign of surrender and peace. The man was worn by time. His hair was gun grey, his face shaped by harsh winds into a frown, scars littered his hands and face, his large hooked nose turned down at her. His brown eyes were clear and focused. He wore a simple cotton pants, white shirt with a brown over coat, his black boots contrasted with the brown dust and dirt.

Angel's mouth was dry. She licked her dry, cracked, lips and said with a tremble.

"Please don't shoot me. My name is Angel. I'll... leave, right now." Angel nodded to the wide expanse of hill lands with no end in sight. The heat simmered over brown tops and shadows flickered at the bottom. Angel decided if it was better to get killed nice and fast here or die slowly out there. The man stared at her, he was thinking fast, his lips moved quickly but no words came out, his eyes flicked left and right. Angel remained very still. She felt like a rabbit trapped by fear alone. The gun was lowered and he pointed it at the ground. He spoke softer now.

"I don't make it business to kill polite people, or the sane" He added in after thought. Angel felt her body relax and she felt her hand become shaky. * The man continued to speak and offered Angel his hand at the same time.

"Sorry miss, I had to be sure you weren't going to try and eat me or something along those lines. Its sadly common to meet people far more interested in your money than your kindness." he grumbled aloud pulling Angel to her feet, eyeing her tattoos ad metallic features. Angel felt... shy. The only person to actually talk to her in person was John. She crossed her arms over her body and fidgeted.

Her companion snorted, misreading her actions.

"Sweetheart, don't worry. I'm 47 years old and married to my work. You're something special but I can honestly say I like my women less complicated. Come on, you thirsty?" He prompted her with a smile that looked grizzly on his face. Angel remembered the feeling. Huger and thirst. People felt them all the time, unless they had a third of a planets Eridium pumped into their veins. Angel hadn't felt hungry in a long time. But for the sake of simply not being alone she nodded to him. He nodded back and set of on a dusty path that was a shade lighter than the area around it.

"The name is Holland. I live just around the corner, near the gorges entrance." He explained. Angel snatched the name and repeated it several times in her head. Angel was smart and that was before you added the world wide computer system to her intelligence. Holland, as far she could remember, didn't ring any alarm bells.

"Its good to meet you Holland. Thank you for the offer. I don't mean to be rude but where are we? Are we near Sanctuary or the old town of Fyrestone?" She asked in a curious tone, wanting to know how far her resurrection had taking her. The man stalled in his walk. He turned to her with a serious look again.

"Angel, I'm not going to lie to you. Those places you're talking about? I heard of them but you're talking about a thirty thousand mile journey by train. I won't covert that into walking distance. But you get the picture." He said quietly. Angel's mouth fell open. She was on the other side of the planet.

"What about the fast travel systems? They could get me there in a short while?" Holland rubbed his clean shaven face.

"We never got many of them, this is west coat of Pandora by the way, the Hermes continent to be exact. Those machines are in short supply" Angel knew where she was. It was a small piece of land near the bottom of the planet. Quite isolated. No company saw the benefits of occupying the land.

"Why is there a new U-station here then? Hyperion never expanded this far down." Angel asked with a frown. Holland for the first time seemed to look abashed. He coughed into his hands and looked at her.

"I may have, uh tried to build one myself off a wrecked one that floated in on the tide." He explained with a soft grin. Angel blinked in surprise, that was no beginners luck or skill.

"Who are you?" Angel asked again but for a different reason. Holland kept walking.

"We are who we want to be Miss Angel, now hurry along it's going to be dark soon. I like to see the skags when they try to eat me."

Angel stared after him, her body slightly tired from their meeting. She picked up her pace and hurried after him. Nervously looking for sights of the four legged beasts of Pandora.

Angel was getting a grasp on her life. She would handle it carefully.

Chapter 1 end


	2. Chapter 2

Borderlands: Ascension

* * *

As Angel and her guide rounded the corner a few minutes walk from the new U-Station , she wasn't sure what she expected. A small ramshackle house or a something else equally fit for those who struggled to live on Pandora. But not this.

Holland's home was a modest small building surrounded by fences that Angel couldn't reach the top of even if she jumped. Not that she wanted to, eyeing the dark stains in certain places on the barbed wires with metal spikes below them, wielded to the fence itself. There was a central gate entrance which was electronically locked in the middle of the fence, it had no handle and a red light was blinking dully at the top of the gate. There was a home made path made with slabs of stones cracked and worn away by time.

Holland's home was carefully maintained. Each metal side was washed carefully to avoid rusting, the door looked well oiled, The roof was almost flat with a small circular chimney. The windows didn't sparkles but they were clean from what see could see behind the linked chain fence gate.

"You have glass windows?" Angel asked surprised. Glass was a commodity on Pandora. Not due to cost but simply because of the short life span of glass. If it wasn't bandits shooting them or skags smashing them, acid splashes melting them, it was the very heat making them torture devices. Holland snorted loudly.

"Glass ain't worth my time if it gets broken every day by idiots waving guns. Its poly plastic moulded with a clear metal, its every bit of real glass but the touch. The touch feels like a sheet of metal." He grunted his dislike at this piece of information. Angel turned to look at Holland.

"You made them?" She asked unable to hide her interest. Building things, machinery, creating something from nothing or lesser parts. Angel loved the concept, heck her Siren powers were basically manipulating machines and creating objects with energy. Not that she understood them very well. Her old necklace or slave collar in reality prevented her from doing "pointless and boring" things with her powers as John used to say.

Holland smiled. He look pleased at Angel's tone, impressed not shocked.

"If a man has nothing to do on Pandora then he either dies or goes insane. I'm good at making things." He answered as they reached the main gate. Holland reached into his shirt and pulled a metal key from around his neck. It looked large and heavy. He leaned over and moved a panel on the gate aside to reveal a keyhole. Inserting the key, he turned it once to the left then to the right in equal distances. The red light, she noticed earlier, flashed green and Holland pushed the gate open and it swung forward without making a noise. Holland waved his hand in an "after you" motion. As she did, she remarked

"Like new U-stations?" Angel smiled at him, stopping when she noticed his frown. Holland stepped through the gate and it shut as quietly as it opened. The red light flashed to show it was locked. Angel had a sudden stab of panic. What if she went from one cage to another? What if Holland became her new John? Her heart beating, she took a step back. Holland raised an eye brow at her.

"You okay Miss Angel? You look paler than the moon." it was asked gently. Angel swallowed the lump in her throat. Trying to calm down, she breathed, this was a guy just wanting to help her. This was not her father.

"You will let me out when I want? I'm not trapped here?" Angel was tired of the lies, tired of trying to listen for what was not spoken. The bluntest of her question was soothing in its own way. John would of punished her for being so reckless or obvious. Holland looked at her through surprised eyes.

"What you talking about Miss Angel? Trapped... oh sweetheart listen." He took out the key once again and removed it from his neck. Without a word he tossed it at Angel's feet. Not expecting it, Angel eyes widened and she reach down and snatched it. Holland nodded in reassurance.

"I don't trap helpless people here, I protect them. But they are free to go at any time. Sorry for startling you Miss Angel." To show his point he stepped away from the gate and walked the path to the house. Angel watched him go until he disappeared into his home. Angel wanted to curse but settled for something less.

"Fudge." It felt good to say what she wanted. Maybe one day she could swear as freely as she wanted. The idea was still in her head that John was watching, listening and controlleing her. But this charade was boring, not his style. Angel followed Holland's steps and reached his front door. A small porch made of wood decorated the front of the building.

It was a good touch in her opinion. She stopped before knocking, Angel reached out and stroked the brown material. Wood felt smooth and not cold. Angel always wanted know what wood felt like. It felt nice. Something to check off the "Never going to get to do these things" list. Taking another deep breath she knocked on the metal door. Her knocking resounded loudly. Angel listened carefully.

"Holland? Are you there? I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to offend you." Angel talked loudly through the door. A voice came from her left.

"Offend me Miss Angel? It takes a lot to do that and you haven't gotten there yet." Angel spun to see Holland at the side of the building leaning in on the metal side with his arms crossed.

"You went inside. I thought you were angry." Angel said slowly. Holland shook his head. He held up his hands to show another large key in fingers. An exact copy of the one Angel held.

"Was just getting my spare key in case you decided to split. Glad to see you stuck around Miss." Holland smiled at her. Angel felt her own smile creep across her face.

"Have some tea. Does the mind some good." Holland moved around the kitchen in a relaxed pace. It was dim but not dark. It look clean and efficient, what she had quickly come to learn about Holland. Angel was sitting in a chair in the living room, where the kitchen was connected. The inside of the house was simple but for what it held it was homely. Several green plants sat in shade. Books. Actual books sat on a shelve in the living room, most were scientific journals. A thread bare rug was placed in the middle of the living room.

Holland came back from the kitchen with two steaming mugs. Angel gingerly accepted the given cup. It was hot but not unbearably so. It smelled sweet and tangy. Taking a sip, a nice taste washed over her tongue. After 5 years, anything would taste wonderful. Holland took a deep drink of his own.

"Ah Blood berry juice tea, can't start a day without it." Holland sighed, then noticed Angels shocked look at her own cup.

"It's fine, they're not actually grown in blood or anything. It's just the name the locals give them because of the colour." Holland fished before he drained the rest of his cup dry. Angel eyed him before drinking some more. Holland sat down and got comfortable. Angel finally put down her cup, feeling full in a good way. Eridium had nothing on actual substances.

"Thank you, it was delicious. I never heard of … blood berries before. Do they only grow in this region?" Holland nodded.

"Yeah the bush that grows them could be exported to other regions but when on paper you got a name like 'blood berries' then they tend not get bought." He chuckled. Angel nodded, seeing why.

Holland rubbed his chin.

"So Miss Angel what caused you to appear on the other side of the planet on my doorstep?" Holland asked suddenly. Angel not prepared for the change in topic blinked at him.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Holland showed his hands palm up.

"The idea of the New-U is that you died and are rich or influence enough to use it. Both points merit a little story time, yeah?" Holland said matter of factly. Angel didn't speak for a few seconds.

Where to start and where to end? How much to tell.. Could she trust Holland with information that could get him killed by John or anyone with Hyperion loyalty or greed for their money. All her life she had manipulated, fooled, lied, triple checked every word she said. Angel was tired of it all.

Honesty would be her drug of choice.

"I am Handsome Jack's daughter." Saying the words aloud didn't make her feel better about the fact but being honest with Holland making her suffer was bliss of its own. Finally a conversation with a stranger that didn't start with lies. Holland's mouth feel open. Then closed. He looked at her then with a sigh and rubbed his eyes.

"I knew it, trouble." He muttered but gave her a small smile when she bowed her head.

"Don't worry I don't have Hyperion's number on speed dial. I meant what I said, you're protected here to the best of my power." Holland gave her a tip of an imaginary hat. Angel's cheeks turned up with a smile.

"Thank you Holland, but just by talking to me you could be putting yourself in danger. I shouldn't stay." Angel said remorsefully, knowing the extent of John's army and now soon the warrior. Holland snorted aloud.

"Sweet heart, with thinking like that, nothing would be safe next to you. But that depends on what you plan to do about him. Still the way the radio's have been talking it sounds like Jack's on a revenge bender for what them vault hunters did to you." he finished, eyeing her face turn angrier.

"The vault hunters? What they did to me? Biggest pile of Skag sh...mess ever. The vault hunters saved the only way I could be. Jack is the one who made me suffer, every day. Just like every one else who ever had the unfortunate fate of meeting him." Angel's breath was shaky when it was exhaled but there was heat there. Holland stayed quiet so Angel hurried to fill the silence.

"I was his prisoner. I'm a Siren, do you know about them?" Angel asked unsure if Holland would know of the obscure female warriors of the universe. To her surprise he nodded.

"I met one briefly. Commander Helga Steele of the Atlas company. I saw the end of her gun muzzle as she claimed the most promising locations for the Vault. She was pale with tattoo's like yours. I could guess you were a Siren. Didn't want to upset you by asking. Not my business what you are and what you aren't. We are who we want to be." He finished before reaching for his cup not realising it was empty. Frowning he sat back. Angel was staring at him.

"You looked for the Vault?" she asked quietly, Angel knew of Helga Steele. A Siren with a cause and a pay check. John had her stalk Steele as soon as she was planet side. Angel couldn't deny when she was watching Steele via satellite she felt envious of her freedom but felt something die with Steele when she was killed. A sister she never met. Holland was oblivious to internal dialogue and answered her.

"I was assistant manager of technologies, design and experimentation of the Dahl corporation. Sound impressive, it was really, then we came to Pandora. You have to understand, Dahl had no rights to search for the Vault legally but mining? Dahl secured the rights to mine the planets resources before any one else thought of the idea. You know this?" He asked, pointing at Angel, who nodded.

"Well in truth we dug side ways more than down, maybe hoping to dig straight into this Vault and claim it under legal terms. It went well, we used convicts sentenced to life as the work force. Easy pay and all that. People actually paid the Dahl corporation to take their criminals off planet and far away. It was a gold mine at the time. After so many years we found nothing, Dahl's investments were drying up. Then some one found a piece of the mystical Vault key near a mine." Holland exhaled loudly, his lined face pinching. Angel had a good idea of what happened next.

"Everyone went crazy. The piece disappeared when bandits raided the place and since then it swapped hands from one large maniac to another, usually covered in blood. Then Atlas company showed up. They had several outposts and claims on the planet already so they could just waltz right in without problem." His eyes glazed over and Angel could see he wasn't looking at the 'now'.

"Without as much as 'how do you do?' they opened fired and slaughtered Dahl, bandits, locals and anything else that got in their way. Good people just doing there job died that day. They didn't chase us thank God, but we were stuck in the wilds with no protection. Most of us went insane or scared and joined bandit clans or made their own. The rest of us? I think we went insane anyway but we got the hell out of there and tried to live on. Vaults are bad news, that's why they were lost. Especially after I heard what came out the first one." He swallowed and Angel agreed.

John had said there was a monster inside the Vault. But what came out was... nothing sort of nightmarish. Angel looked away. John had caused so much suffering. The Vaults had cause more.

"I'm sorry. That you lost people..." Angel never had to comfort someone before it was an unpleasant experience, what if she said the wrong thing? Holland nodded.

"Thank you, kindly." There was silence before Angel suddenly talked.

"Do you know Patricia Tannis?" The question made Holland eyes blink furiously.

"Patricia? Yeah I knew her. Kinda snobby and moan-y. But a good scientist and researcher. Even better archaeologist. Had a knack for correcting you and insulting you then getting into an intense debate with you, drove people crazy... She was good person." He finished and looked at her, curiosity to know why she had asked in his eyes. Angel fidgeted.

"She's alive, helping the resistance against Jack." She said with a small smile. Holland's smile beat hers by a mile.

"Good ole Patty! How is the smartass?" He asked leaning forward to listen intently. Angel rubbed the cold screw on the bottom of her seat. How to answer?

"Patricia is clinically insane. She's paranoid, schizophrenic, bipolar and has a great phobia of social situations" Honesty was the best drug. Right? Holland's smile fell form his face like sand.

"I... see. Is she in good hands?" He asked, a lump in his throat. Angel nodded hard.

"The best, a kind man named Roland helped her move to safety when Hyperion attacked. Last time I... heard she was able to stand out side for a whole ten seconds. Patricia is no where better on Pandora." Sadly this was true. Pandora lacked many things. Safety, sanity and hospitals. Holland was silent, as was Angel.

"More Blood berry?"

"Please."

* * *

Thank you.


	3. Chapter 3

Borderlands: Ascension

Chapter 3

* * *

"It's called Swallow Gorge. Piece of work is what it is. Got the name to the fact that almost anything that goes in usually doesn't come back out in one piece. Or several." Holland rubbed his chin in manner that Angel was already coming to know was his our nervous tic. Swaying her eyes back to the back of the yard, Angel glanced once again at the warning sign declaring 'Cliff edge ahead" with a stick figure falling over said edge.

Holland suggested sitting outside for fresh after their conversation turned into awkward areas. The garden was yellow grass and odd desert flowers in organized rows. It was small and simple but Angel liked it regardless. She might get a garden one day. If she avoided John long enough to get that far.

Focusing back into the here and now, Angel wanted to know why he had the sign and Holland merely motioned for her to follow and walked over to the fences containing the garden. Leaning over Angel saw a wide gap in the planet that the yellow suns light had trouble illuminating the bottom of. Angel raised an eyebrow.

"Why would anyone want to go in then?" she asked incredulously. People on Pandora were dangerously idiotic at times but certain death was pretty easy to understand. Holland shrugged.

"Several reasons." he stated. Holland bent down and then sat on the soil, his legs dangled over the edge swaying in the burst of gusts. He patted the space next to him and Angel took the invitation and sat with a single drop her own feet joining Holland's.

"Such as...?" Angel prodded with a tilt to her head, her hair blowing gentle in the open air. It felt amazing. She could do it all day, once she found a coat. Holland looked at her.

"Medical plants grow well down there. Follow the gorges bottom and you'll come to a spring, freshest water in miles. Then there's the black worms." He finished, rubbing his chin at the last part of his explanation. Angel frowned.

"What are black worms and why would people want them?" She prodded further. Holland grinned at her.

"Always the questions with you isn't it?" Holland's grin stretched further at Angel's redding face.

"Just messing with you sweetheart. Black worms are large, nasty creatures that can melt the bones off anything it catches off guard with acid. They has a taste for red meat, they wait in the gorges walls. Softer earth you see?" He pointed at the colouring of the gorges lower walls. Angel could see the walls and nodded.

"Okay, I get what they are but I still don't get the why, why do people want them?" she asked, sounding confused as she looked. Holland look down at the dark drop, the sun above did nothing to help see anything.

"Before the Eridium eruption as it was called 5 years ago. Black worms were the best source of medical components. Almost nothing on the black worm is useless. The eyes could create amazing skin grafts if the juices were harvested. The skin was thick and used in clothes or armour. The blood had strong antibiotics used in treatments of illness. The meat was rich in all kinds good stuff. They reproduced at amazing rates too. Never expanding to much or to little, they're smart like that. They can eat roots, ore, plants, creatures, or people and live for awhile. But they can't stand direct sunlight, screws their sensory organs to hell. Then the teeth...acid...spikes... But after the E.E, sorry I mean Eridium Eruption the Black worms mains diet became humans, then Eridium and the rest." Holland said with a stretch.

Angel was impressed, the man knew his stuff. Guess being neighbours with the creatures made it kinda necessary. Before she could ask another question, Holland spoke up.

"Black worms can't digest Eridium and they have very slow digestion rates regardless. After E.E people gutting the black worms found large amount of Eridium in their stomachs. The Eridium grew under ground, it stands to reason the worms could finds mountains of the stuff and munch on it. But they couldn't eat too much I guess. These days I say the worms were getting more purple than black. So all in all? Killing worms and getting Eridium plus medical supplies? Its worth the risk and the town to the north, Goodwill sends parties every month down there to go on hunting trips." Holland pointed to Angels left.

Angel looked but a large uphill road blocked her view. Holland seemed to look right through the hill.

"The town needs each and every kill. It's another typical town on Pandora. Kids are born, people know each other, supplies are low, the outside is dangerous and bandits have nothing better to do than visit every week." He sighed and looked at her.

"Apologies Miss Angel. Didn't mean to bring this conversation down." He tip his imaginary hat to for twice that day.

Angel shook her head.

"I'm not going to ignore the truth. This planet needs help so badly. This planet is covered in violence, anger, pain, tears and heartbreak. I am so sick of tears. Mine, yours and everyone. Is power or money worth so much pain?" She pull her knees up and hugged them her head buried. Holland reached to rub his chin then stopped. He stared at the gorge and then at Angel, her hair falling downwards, her two metal implants at the side of her head reflecting in the hot light, the shaven part of her head pale in the sun.

"I have something to confess Miss Angel." Holland said quietly. Angel turned her eyes to him, her heart freezing in her chest. Angel shook her head. This soon?

Angel knew first hand the act of deceiving people who think they can trust you. It was her cruel fate that Angel would now know how it looks from the other side. Holland gave in and rubbed his face.

"I believe it's my fault that you ended up in Hermes. I think I brought you here." He muttered, obviously uncomfortable at her look. Angel blinked.

"You brought me here? That's it? You didn't sell me out to Hyperion? Bandits? You aren't a local war lord? You saved my life and you think you've done something wrong?" Angel asked amazed, her chest warm and alive with her heart hammering in her chest with relief. Holland was caught off guard and he leaned backwards, his mouth open in surprise.

"I'm not any of those thin...wha-" Holland choked over his words and then frowned.

"Trying to give this old man a heart attack young lady?" He grumbled. Angel smirked.

"If you do, I'll see you at the new U-station." she said with a smile. Her smile straightened out when his face paused.

"What?" Holland didn't answer at first. Stroking his hands together he turned away. Angel didn't push him. Her curiosity urging her to do otherwise. Holland spoke up after a brief pause.

"I can't use that station. In fact until today, I would've said it was impossible for anyone to use it." He looked at Angel with unhidden pondering.

"I messed up when I put the thing back together. Normally the new-U's take pure data and nuclear solar power to work. It's quite sad, most people walk by them everyday, not really understanding that the power of a small continent is being contained within its metal." Holland sounded genuinely sad.

"Well lest here on Pandora anyway. Like I said it take enormous energy to work the new-U and if some parts are missing or broken then its almost a certainty that it won't work. I got lucky when I found that one around the corner, it had fallen off a Hyperion lunar shipment when it flew through a storm out in the stratosphere, um the second lowest part of the sky." He waved vaguely upwards.

Angel nodded, eager to hear more and slightly nervous as well. What was Holland pussy footing around? Clearing his throat, Holland continued.

"Like I said I got lucky. It fell off and washed up a few days later, still in its box. Everything was intact, except the solar charger. If it was almost anything else then I could replace it. But the Solar charger? Without a team of Hyperion techs it be impossible. Those little gadgets need to be tuned down to a decimal. If the slightest edge is bent or rusted or if the energy input and output wasn't sorted and fitted, then the whole thing would unbalance and explode. Everything with would be dust within two miles." He finished with a stretch of his arms. Angel's head snapped fully around to look at him.

"Are you serious?" It was the first thing out her mouth, Holland didn't even tense at the question.

"Deadly." He replied. Angel's mind flew in a hundred miles in every direction. The new-U stations were never advertised as sitting bombs. Then again, Hyperion didn't advertise the fact they also created monsters, weapons and generally ugly states of life either.

"So what if one malfunctions? As if it got sprayed with bullets and damages it solar charger? Will it detonated?" Every major city or gathering of people had a new-U station with its boundaries. Within it's shields. Angel's stomach churned sickeningly at the thought of John snapping his fingers and igniting Pandora in flames. Holland snorted.

"Hell no sweetheart. Like I said, each working new-U has it's solar charger tuned to the machine and location, hence why there's no portable new-U's, too many factors to take in, they never work. A balanced charger takes in the appropriate energy to reconstruct some and then stops. It has a limit on the charger so it can get enough and no more. Shoot them up and you'll get a blast hot enough to cook marshmallows." He answered reassuringly, calming Angel's emotions. She felt tired and sore at the information she was hearing. Holland played with the dirt, picking it up and dropping it.

"An unbalanced solar charger just keeps eating. Eating until it can eat no more. When it tried to reconstruct someone, it fries them, cooks the very data. Of course the charger becomes like a blister waiting for it to be popped all over the place." His fingers made a squeezing motion. Angel's face scrunched.

"The image was not really needed." she said, tone clearly disgusted. Holland smirked at her.

"The analogy fits. The energy dies down after awhile and the solar charge becomes burnt out but if someone were to try and reconstruct, or even kick the damn thing then you got a crater to fill the bodies with." He finished. Angel was silent before looking back at Holland's house. She had to know.

"Does that new-U station have a faulty solar charger?" Angel prayed he would answer with a negative. Holland shook his head. Angel sent a silent thank you upwards.

"I'm old, not senile. I told you I put I messed up. I tried to get around the problem. Connect the new-U to a... alternative power source." He said answering and at the same time not answering.

Angel's eyes caught Holland's.

"How?" Holland didn't hesitate to reply.

"Come with me and I'll show you." He stood and offered her a hand up, she took it.

"Where to Holland?" The man smiled grimly. He looked back over the edge.

"Where else? Swallow gorge."

When the sloping path levelled out to a flat ground, Angel took another stock of their surroundings. The Swallow gorge was aptly name. The walls jutted out from either side, creating stone hands blocking the sky above. The warning signs and metal gate were promptly ignored as the walked down

The curves of wall dipped and twisted, once in awhile holes big enough for Angel to fit into appear, the rock and stone inside the holes weren't jagged but smooth like marble, getting softer further in the holes.. They looked odd sitting sideways but Angel ignored them. The soil beneath them was not hard packed like surface and even squelched sometimes when Angel walked. Holland nodded when she ask about it.

"I mentioned earlier about a spring near the bottom of this place yeah? Well it's called Hermit's tears. Nobody know if the name is a play on Hermes or the fact it its so isolated down here. But the name suits it. But the worms dig around it, they don't drink all that much but their tunnels sometimes get flood and it carries the water everywhere." He gave a loud stomp with his foot at the soil mashed into wet mud.

The noise was loud to Angel's ears and the holes in the wall seem to suck up the noise like substance of its own. It creeped Angel out to no end.

"How far is it to the spring?" She asked as she follow Holland further into the winding path. He rubbed his chin.

"Not far but our stop comes before it. If we see Hermit's tears then we've got too far. But I rather not be down here all day. The sun is setting soonish. The worms won't come out, even down here in the shadows while the sun is up but come night... Regardless, it's not far now." He nodded to a bend in the wall which diverge into its own path.

Angel stopped when they reached the end of the path and a large area opened up before them. The sky here was unobstructed Brilliant sunlight shone down over the dry soil. The craggy circular basin was desolate except for one thing. The opposite of the path that lead them and buried deep into the gorges skin was a huge amount of purple.

A giant Eridium ore, still mostly buried in the wall was reflecting the light. It was almost five times her hight, almost double that on its width, like some giant beast had raked its claws on the wall and instead of blood, revealed Eridium.

It was the biggest Eridium ore she had ever seen. True she had seen Eridium in far larger quantities but seeing it here in the soil was quite different than having inside your veins.

Holland walked towards it.

"After the E.E incident, the gorge had a minor earthquake and a few sections fell apart, like this area." He waved his hand around a 'for example' motion. Angel stepped up next to Holland a few feet away from the ore, Angel could feel the ore humming with power. Holland coughed and looked suddenly abashed.

"This is my mistake." He gestured to each side of the ore where Angel noticed two identical red cables swung in the gently breeze. The ends where like two metal spikes that someone, most likely Holland had hammered into the ore. The cables were attached to the walls and one cable snaked along the ground to a machine that was hidden behind some rocks to the left, the other cable travelled upwards and out of sight.. Holland sighed. Angel looked at him.

"I don't understand Holland, what mistake?" Angel asked gently, her head aching slightly.

"I attempted to get around the solar charger problem, by coursing electricity via solar panels by the battery over there and linking the new-U station to a more direct yet non-renewable source-"

"Eridium..." Angel finished for him. Nodding Holland looked at her.

"I didn't count for the fact that the Eridium was highly malleable. I hooked it up and coded an blood berries DNA into the new-U. Implanted a one time use chip for the new-U, get them any where these days most people save up for the life time chip. I shot the berry and and when the new- U spluttered and started to digistruct the thing I felt glorious."

Holland's eyes closed, reliving the moment. He took a short breath, in and out.

"But the fruit was purple and it glowed. A few seconds later, it imploded on itself. Left a mess everywhere" Holland said quietly. Angel stared at him. He shuffled his feet and sighed one more.

"I tried it with with different berries and then a a Skag. Took awhile to get the chip in let me tell you, nearly lost a hand. It wasn't... it was purple and it didn't walk right, like it was in pain all the time. It tried to kill me with purple vomit, if that was a plus. The vomit, it look like liquid Eridium, smell like it, it was crazy. I thought to myself 'If person comes out of that, I don't want to be there to put the poor fool out of their misery.'" He finished with a slight hitch to his voice. Angel swallowed the lump in her throat.

"If that's true then I have... Eridium inside of me?" She asked hollowly. Holland gave her a sad look, with pity and guilt gently mixed in for a bitter drink.

"Its the only logical explanation. I don't know how you're alive." Angel nodded silently. She knew. Without the Eridium pumped into her data at her reconstruction, she would of died there on the spot. Three cheers for John's insane experiments she thought bitterly. Her headache worsened and her eyes burned. Angel felt exhausted.

Holland looked at her.

"Come sit down. It's a lot to take in." Angel let him guide her to a rock not far off. She smiled at him.

"Thanks for the honesty." Holland smiled back.

"Any time sweetheart, any time."

The sky became greyish, the sun fading behind dark clouds. Inside a single hole, no different from the hundreds of others surrounding it set in the gorges walls a pair of membrane eyes glowed perilously red.

* * *

Thank you!


End file.
